Pink Floyd: P. U. L. S. E. Live at Earls Court

I've always enjoyed watching pink floyd performances post-Roger Waters just to see and contrast the difference between the Waters led band and the Gilmour led band. It's always a hard choice but I have to saw I lean towards Gilmour, say what you will but he's that good to me

One of the best concert films I have ever seen, and Floyd more than redeems themselves for the absolutely crappy "Delicate Sound of Thunder" concert video. Here, it's like you are there with the audience. The camera work does of a good job of making you feel that way and the sound really is crisp and has great clarity. Dave Gilmour looks better than he has in years, he looked like he was in fighting trim and he sings better and with more power as a result of it. Dick Parry, the bands original sax player was sorely missed and brings some breathtaking sax solos on "SOYCD", "Money", and "Us and Them". The encore to end all encores, "Comfortably Numb" literally does bring the house down with some really amazing effects, and just when you think its over they come back with a really good version of "Run Like Hell". But what makes this video a collectors item is just a chance to see them play the entire "Dark Side of the Moon" set live in concert. I did miss Rachel Fury, the really hot backup singer who toured with them back in '87. Some people have said Floyd uses the laser and light show to hide their age, but after watching this, I hope I look half as good as they do in my 50's. Also noteworthy is the heartbreaking movie/tribute to Syd Barrett, who founded the band along with Roger Waters in the 60's. The movie is played with their standard opening song "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" and it's a really brilliant short film directed by Strom Thurgenson. Barrett suffered brain damage as a result of his massive drug habit and its gut wretching to see his story played up there on that video screen.

It's terrific to see Pink Floyd playing well together in their mega-dynamic way here in the PULSE concert, now remastered wonderfully for a DVD set. They go through many of their hits, most notably all of Dark Side of the Moon, and seeing the band go through Shine on You Crazy Diamond is as amazing as it gets from the group (a great opener that is hard to top). And overall the core of the musicianship of David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright do gel together at times. But then there's the thing of it being such a HUGE event live, lasers and special videos on a big screen behind them included, that they have to work that much more harder to keep up with the theatrics. They're up to task, but there's something missing from it all too, and not just the obvious (Roger Waters, who is now doing his own version of this show more or less on his Dark Side tour). Maybe it's me putting it too much into perspective; seeing the film that preceded this one some twenty years before, Live at Pompeii, PULSE isn't as forceful and tremendous even on such a scale as playing in Earl's Court to who knows how many people.

I guess this is my way of saying that the concert, for me at least, is not a flawless one like Pompeii comes close to (even if that is, by turns, not in the same style of performance as in PULSE). And in comparison with many of the classic Floyd songs of the 70s, the newer work (with a couple of exceptions like Learning to Fly and Keep Talking) sort of falls up short, with a song like High Hopes one that I fast-forward past. But this aspect of the concert is not very detrimental, just a minor liability for more die-hard old-school Floyd fans. In terms of just capturing the band live, and the band with its immense ensemble of back-up players and singers, the director gets it all down without a hitch. If it also has a little added historical value to it too, it may also be because, unless something happens in the next few years (and in 2006 both Gilmour, with the occasional Mason and Wright in tow, and Waters went on their own solo tours), this might be the last time Pink Floyd are seen live on video.

Clearly the best concert video I have ever seen. The effects (at the concert) were stunning. Floyd played their absolute best. The choice of songs was excellent and covered their entire musical history up to the date of filming. This video would only be better if it was put on DVD so that the sound and video were even sharper. This is one that you can watch over and over and never get tired of it.

This is the best live music video I have seen. Yes, I have seen all those "unplugged" videos, and so on. This is one that I often (once a week?) put on as background "music" while I am reading. About 10 minutes later I am looking at the video more than reading. Another 5 minutes and I watch the rest of the video, discarding the reading material. I cannot wait for the DVD version to come out so that I get a better picture and stop wearing out my VHS tapes!